ATLANTA, Ga., October 15, 2008 – For the second time this year, Durst Image Technology U.S., LLC has been cited for its success in providing Durst customers with best-of-class service and support.  Aberdeen Group, during its annual Chief Service Officer’s Summit in Boston earlier this month, selected Durst as the recipient of its “2008 Performance Excellence Award.”

The prestigious award, which Durst announced during the SGIA trade show here this week, puts the Rochester, N.Y.-based provider of world-class commercial UV inkjet and photographic imaging systems in very good company.  Previous winners include Northrup Gruman, Agilent Technology, GE Healthcare, The University of Pennsylvania, Goss International and Trane.

In May, Durst received the award for “Best Service & Support Strategy Implemented in 2007” from Worldwide Business Research / Field Service.  Also this year, Durst scored very high in a pair of customer satisfaction surveys – one focused on service.  And InfoTrends, in a June article titled Wide Format Sign Posts, said:  “Durst’s knowledge management and remote monitoring service is an excellent example of innovative thinking in terms of service delivery.”

Said Tracey Jones, Senior Director of Marketing Communications for Aberdeen Group:  “Durst has been selected for our Performance Excellence Award as an enterprise that has harnessed the performance impacts of value chain activities and mastered methodologies for financial, operational and customer-centric performance excellence.  We’re very pleased to present Durst with this sought-after award, and Aberdeen Group looks forward to its continued innovation and progress.”

“We’re gratified by this award from Aberdeen Group and by the recognition it brings to Durst Service,” said Tim Saur, Senior Vice President of Operations, Finance & Service for Durst U.S.  “It’s especially satisfying given the world-class companies that have won this award previously, and because it comes on the heels of our award from Field Service, and the positive results of two separate surveys measuring our customers’ satisfaction.

“For the imaging industry we serve, we hope this recognition clearly demonstrates our ability to provide after-sale service and support that’s unparalleled,” Saur added.  “We understand – perhaps better than anyone else in our industry – the importance of accessible, effective service and support to the success of an imaging enterprise.”

Control Costs, Reduce Downtime
Durst is demonstrating its award-winning Durst Service Portal, which is the centerpiece of its award-winning service and customer-support effort, this week in its SGIA booth (#1861).  A first for the imaging industry, the Durst system is a web-based, “co-service” program that employs a variety of technologies and processes to help customers control service costs and reduce equipment downtime.  Customers work directly with Durst’s telephone support technicians or on their own to troubleshoot their equipment and solve problems.

The Durst Service Portal features EDSON (Enhanced Diagnostic & Service Online Network), which provides Durst customers access to online training, trouble-shooting procedures, sophisticated animations and other online assistance to help them solve problems themselves inexpensively and minimize their downtime.  A complete preventative maintenance module helps Durst customers keep their printers running at peak performance and eliminate problems before they can develop, the company said.

These systems and tools, Durst said, support four service levels that fully enable customers to determine for themselves how much they will rely directly on Durst, and how much they will take on themselves using the tools Durst provides – delivered clearly and immediately via the Durst Service Portal.  The imaging business can choose the right service contract for its needs, based on budget, in-house expertise, geographic location and other individual factors, Durst said.

Satisfied Durst Customers
A recent independent survey of nearly 350 Durst customers seeking to measure the quality and effectiveness of after-sale technical support resulted in a customer satisfaction score of 96.2 percent.  In particular, respondents were impressed with the knowledge, expertise, courtesy and professionalism of Durst’s telephone support and field service representatives, survey findings indicated.

Durst also received more recognition for its customer satisfaction this year – being counted among a select group of enterprises whose customers are overwhelmingly likely to recommend them to others, as measured by the respected Net Promoter Score metric.  The Net Promoter Score, developed by leading management consultant Fred Reichheld, is hailed as perhaps the most important new metric to determine business performance and success.

About Aberdeen Group
Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results.  Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action:  driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis.  As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com, or call (617) 723-7890.  To learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748, or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

About Durst
Durst Phototechnik AG is a leading manufacturer of professional digital imaging systems for graphic, pre-press, signage, commercial / retail display, packaging, industrial and photographic applications.  Headquartered in Brixen, Italy, the company operates manufacturing facilities in Brixen and Lienz, Austria; has major offices in the U.S., France, United Kingdom, Germany and Mexico; and partners with exclusive agents in 120 countries.  Durst’s worldwide reputation for quality, precision, innovation and reliability spans more than 70 years.

Durst Image Technology U.S., LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Durst Phototechnik Group and the exclusive distributor and service provider for all Durst professional digital imaging equipment in the United States and Canada.  Durst’s professional imaging products include the renowned Lambda laser imagers, Rho and Gamma large-format UV inkjet printers, Theta roll-to-cut print photo imagers, photo album creation systems, and other products.

CONTACT:  For information on Durst Image Technology U.S., LLC or any of Durst’s products and services, contact Christopher Howard, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing:  phone (585) 486-0340 ext. 5250, fax (585) 486-0350, e-mail choward@durstus.com.  Or visit Durst U.S. online at:  www.durstus.com.